THE TEST OF A MAN
Several men stamped across the porch to the jingle of spur chains.
Others broke in through the back door and entered the kitchen. Sheriff
Bob Long appeared at the door, with two guns leveled.
"You're covered from both doors and all the windows, Rathburn!" he
said sharply.
"That's almost just what I thought, sheriff," Rathburn drawled.
Long stepped into the room, shoving his guns into their holsters. Many
other guns were covering Rathburn.
"What's the meaning of all this, anyway?" demanded Long with a puzzled
expression on his face. His eyes widened, as he saw the bag of money
on the table. "Is that the money that was taken from your bank this
morning Mr. Doane?" he asked sharply.
Doane nodded weakly. The sheriff looked at Rathburn curiously.
"You brought it back? You was up to Joe Price's place."
"Yes, I brought it back, sheriff," said Rathburn cheerfully.
"Well, I'll be frank and tell you, Rathburn, that if you expect
leniency after what happened this morning you might just as well give
up that idea. Any man can change his mind when he sees he can't get
away."
"That's up to you, sheriff," replied Rathburn, taking tobacco and
papers from his shirt pocket. "As I was just tellin' our friend, Mr.
Eagen, I brought it back on purpose, an' I expected to see you when I
got here. I came near not gettin' here at that."
"You took a long chance," scowled Long. "But it won't get you much now
at this stage of the game--especially after the way you led me to
believe this morning that you were thinking of giving yourself up."
Eagen's laugh startled them.
"He brought it back to give it up an' himself, too?" he jeered. "He
brought it back, sheriff, because he an' that rat of a Doane planned
this thing. Coyote got away with the money an' came back here to divvy
up with Doane. Didn't Doane make the same kind of a proposition to me?
Didn't he tell me he was short in his accounts, an' it could be
covered up if the bank was robbed, for then he could say more money
was took than really was? I'll say he did. An' I was goin' to see if
he'd go through with it, an' then I was going to wise you up so we
could get him cold."
With knitted brows the sheriff stared at Eagen, then looked at the
white-faced Doane.
"Tell him I'm tellin' the truth!" shouted Eagen at the shaking bank
cashier. "You can't get out of it."
There was a tense moment.
Doane shook his head weakly; he was a picture of guilt.
"He got scared I wouldn't go through with the play, sheriff," Eagen
continued. "Thought maybe I'd make off with all the kale. So he framed
it with Rathburn, an' I caught 'em about to divide it here."
"He lies!" screamed Doane. "I didn't frame it with Rathburn. I can
prove it. That man"--he pointed a shaking finger at Eagen--"has come
to me with threats and made me take securities I knew were stolen.
There's some of them in the bank now. Some of the stuff he took from
the stage driver yesterday is there! He's pulled job after job----"
Eagen, recovering from his amazement at the man's outbreak, leaped and
drove his powerful fist against Doane's jaw, knocking him nearly the
length of the room, where he crashed with his head against the stones
of the fireplace. Eagen turned quickly. His eyes were blazing red.
"You're the man!" he yelled wrathfully. "You're the yellow Coyote----"
His right hand went to his gun, as there came a crashing report. He
staggered back, trying to get out the weapon which had not left his
holster. He sank down to his knees, still glaring death at the man
above him, still fumbling at his gun. Then he lurched forward on his
face.
Rathburn flipped his smoking pistol so that its barrel landed in his
hand. Then he tendered it, butt foremost, to Sheriff Bob Long. Long
took it and threw it on the table, looking first at Rathburn, then at
the dead man on the floor. He waved toward the doors and windows.
"You boys can draw back," he ordered.
Mallory stepped to the fallen Doane. The man's face had set in a white
cast. He felt his heart.
"He did for him," he said, rising.
Laura Mallory came walking slowly up to the sheriff. Her face was
ghastly after what she had witnessed.
"Sheriff Long," she said in a voice strangely calm, "we heard
Eagen"--she shuddered, as she mentioned the name--"ask Roger--ask Mr.
Rathburn last night to help with some job that would get them a lot
of money. It may be that--that--Fred did plan such a thing. I'm sorry
to say it, but Fred had seemed awfully nervous lately, and to-night he
came to me and asked me to run away with him--at once. He seemed
horribly afraid of something. Anyway, Roger refused to go in with
Eagen, and an examination of Fred's books will tell all."
She hesitated. Then she spoke slowly and softly.
"I know why Roger robbed the bank and----"
"Stop, Laura!" cried Rathburn.
"No," said Laura firmly; "you may be going to prison."
He put out one hand in protest.
Turning again to the sheriff she said:
"Roger did go to town last night, intending to give himself up. I knew
he was going to do it by the way he looked at me. But to-day he saw me
with Mr. Doane, and maybe he's heard things for which there was no
warrant. Anyway, I know he thought I--I--was in love with Fred."
"Laura--please!" Rathburn pleaded.
"And to-night," said the girl in triumph, "he heard Fred was cashier
of the bank he'd robbed, and he brought the money back because he
thought the robbery would hurt Fred and in that way hurt me!"
Rathburn turned appealingly to the sheriff. "Let's go," he urged.
"He robbed that bank because he thought I had betrayed his trust,
Sheriff Long!" cried Laura, her eyes shining.
"Are we going, Long?" cried Rathburn in an agony.
The sheriff stepped to the door and called to some of his men who
entered and bore the bodies of Doane and Eagen out of the sitting
room. Then he took the money sack from the table and indicated to
Rathburn to follow him, as he went out of the door. Rathburn went
after him quickly, and the girl ran to the porch. Rathburn drew back
with a cry, as he reached the porch. Just beyond the steps a horse was
lying on its side.
"My--my hoss!" he cried wonderingly.
He leaped down beside the dead beast. Then he saw crimson upon the
animal's shoulder, as a little gleam of light came from the door.
"That was why he jumped on the trail. He was hit. He carried me all
this way with a bullet in him an' then dropped! One of Long's men shot
him."
Rathburn looked about vacantly. Then he sank down and buried his face
on the shoulder of the dun, as Sheriff Long turned away. Laura Mallory
stepped quickly to the side of the sheriff and touched his arm.
"Is he as bad as you think, sheriff?"
Long scowled at her in the dim light from the door, took out a thick,
black cigar, bit the end off savagely, and began to chew it. He walked
abruptly out to where some of his men were standing by their horses,
and he said something in an undertone. When he returned, Rathburn had
taken the saddle and bridle off the dead horse and was throwing the
leather on the porch.
"Yours, dad," he called to Mallory; "I wouldn't use 'em again if I
could." Then he turned to the sheriff. "All right, Bob."
"Come inside," said Long gruffly.